Security, et al

Cloud Security Starts at Home

Tue, 30 Aug 2016 10:28:14 GMT

Cloud security is getting attention and that’s as it should
be. But before you get hung up on techie
security details like whether SAML is more secure than OpenID Connect and the
like, it’s good to take a step back. One
of the tenets of information security is to follow the risk. Risk is largely a measure of damage and likelihood. When you are looking at different threats to
the same cloud-based data then it becomes a function of the likelihood of those
risks.

In the cloud we worry about the technology and the host of
the cloud. Let’s focus on
industrial-strength infrastructure and platform-as-a-service clouds like AWS
and Azure. And let’s throw in O365 –
it’s not infrastructure or platform but it’s scale and quality of hosting fits
our purposes in terms of security and risk. I don’t have any special affection for any of the cloud providers but
it’s a fact that they have the scale to do a better, more comprehensive, more
active job on security that my little company does and I’m far from alone. This level of cloud doesn’t historically get
hacked because of stupid operational mistakes or flimsy coding practices with
cryptography and password handling. Or
because of obscure vulnerabilities in standards like SAML and OpenID Connect (they
are present). It’s because of tenant-vectored risks. Either poor security practices by the
tenant’s admins or vulnerabilities in the tenant’s technology which the cloud
is exposed to or on which it is reliant.

Here are just a few scenarios of cloud intrusions with a
tenant origin vector

Tenant
Vulnerability

Cloud
Intrusion

1

Admin’s PC infected
with malware

Cloud tenant admin password stolen

2

Tenant’s on-prem network
penetrated

VPN connection between cloud and on-prem network

3

Tenant’s
Active Directory unmonitored

Federation/synchronization with on-prem AD results
in an on-prem admin’s account having privileged access to the cloud.

I’m going to focus on the latter scenario. The point is that most organizations integrate their cloud with their
on-prem Active Directory and that’s as it should be. We hardly want to go back to the inefficient
and insecure world of countless user accounts and passwords per person. We were able to largely reduce that of the
years by bringing more and more on-prem apps, databases and systems online with
Active Directory. Let’s not lose ground
on that with the cloud.

But your greatest risk in the cloud might just be right
under your nose here in AD on your local network. Do you monitor changes in Active
Directory? Are you aware when there are
failed logons or unusual logons to privileged accounts? And I’m not just talking about admin
accounts. Really, just as important, are
those user accounts who have access to the data that your security measures are
all about. So that means identifying not
just the IT groups in AD but also those groups which are used to entitle users
to that important data. Very likely some
of those groups are re-used in the cloud to entitle users there as well. Of course the same goes for the actual user
accounts.

Even for those of us who can say our network isn’t connected
by VPN or any direct connections (like ExpressRoute for Azure/O365) and there’s
no federation or sync between our on-prem and cloud directories your on-prem,
internal security efforts will make or break your security in the cloud and
that’s simply because of #1. At some
point your cloud admin has to connect to the cloud from some device. And if that device isn’t secure or the cloud
admin’s credential handling is lax you’re in trouble.

That’s why I say that for most of us in the cloud need to
first look inward for risks. Monitoring
as always is key. The detective control
you get with a well implemented and correctly used SIEM is incredible and often
the only control you can deploy at key points, technologies or processes in
your network.

"This
article by Randy Smith was originally published by EventTracker."